The Supreme Court has refused to listen to the appeal of gunmaker Remington in the 2014 lawsuit brought forward by a survivor and families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
The refusal of the appeal means that the lawsuit — which alleges that Remington should have never sold to the public a weapon as dangerous as the AR-15 style rifle used in the shooting — can move forward to trial.
{mosads}Remington, the nation’s oldest gunmaker, was appealing the 4-3 decision passed down by the Connecticut Supreme Court in March, citing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a 2005 law that protects gunmakers from liability claims when criminal acts are carried out with their weapons.
Remington’s Bushmaster XM-15 was used by 20-year-old Adam Lanza to murder 20 first graders and six educators at the elementary school.
Until now, the law had proven to be an airtight defense for gun manufacturers, causing lawsuits to be thrown out in similar situations, such as the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting in 2012.